Chris Field PSM is the Western Australian Ombudsman, and Australia’s longest serving ombudsman.
In October 2020, he was elected president of the International Ombudsman Institute (IOI) started his term in May 2021. It was the first time in the history of the IOI that an Australian has been elected president. Mr Field has previously served on the IOI World Board as second vice president from 2016 and 2020, treasurer from 2014 and 2016, and president of the Australasian and Pacific Ombudsman Region from 2012 and 2014.
Mr Field has a theoretical and practising interest in administrative law. He has been an Adjunct Professor in the School of Law at the University of Western Australia where he taught the advanced administrative law unit Government Accountability – Law and Practice, a course he founded with Professor Simon Young (co-author of the university textbook Lane and Young, Administrative Law in Australia). He is also the author of a range of publications on the ombudsman and administrative law.
In 2023, Mr Field was awarded a Public Service Medal for outstanding public service as Ombudsman and president of the International Ombudsman Institute.
Mr Field was subject to a Corruption and Crime Commission hearing over alleged imprudent spending of public funds. In 2024, he resigned as WA Ombudsman after the CCC tabled its report.
